Red Shadows TMNT 2003
by Dorano1
Summary: While on an early-morning rooftop run, Don and Leo spot someone following them. But when they corner him, he's nowhere to be found. Then the creature manifests itself, forcing the turtles to fight the evil that has taken hold of one of their own.
1. Prologue - Early Morning Run

Leo's eyes blinked open to see a wonderful view of…the ceiling. His ceiling, so he hadn't been kidnapped - turtlenapped? In the middle of the night. Not usually a concern, but…  
And where is this train of thought going, Leo? Leo thought to himself, amused as he rolled out of his bed and onto his feet. Sticking his katana back in their sheaths (never sleep with your weapons on - good way to stab yourself) and headed downstairs. Glancing around, he saw the light on in Don's lab. He smiled. Donnie had either been up all night, woken up insanely early, or fallen asleep in his lab. It had happened.  
"Leonardo."  
Leo turned. "Master Splinter - I didn't hear you come in." His sensai smiled. "You are up early, my son."  
He nodded. "Yes Master Splinter. May I go out on a training run?" He asked. Splinter hesitated (probably remembering what happened last time Leo went out on a training run alone), then nodded. "Take Donatello with you. It will do him good to get out of the lair." Splinter added with a trace of humor. Leo bowed and made his way over to his brother's lab, picking his way though the remains of Raph and Mikey's gaming competition. He stopped at the door. Don was bent over his equipment, studying something.  
"Hey Don."  
Donnie jerked his eye away from his microscope. "Oh - Leo! Hey." He said cheerfully. Leo smiled.  
"I'm going up for a surface run. Care to come?" Don nodded. "Yeah - just give me five minutes to finish this up and I'll be there." Leo nodded. "Alright."  
True to his word, five minutes later, Leo was racing across the rooftops with his brother. "Hey Leo - last one to that water tower hatched from a rotten egg!" Don called out, and Leo grinned. "You're on!" He shouted back, sprinting forward. The water tower was maybe five or six blocks away.  
Donatello arrived barely a moment after Leo made it to the water tower. "Ah…nice try, Donnie." Leo said with a grin. "Oh well." Don said with a good-natured shrug. The whisper of footsteps made both of them look around. Don's eyes widened. "Leo…" He said, pointing behind him. Leo turned just in time to see the swish of a cape as a figure ducked out of sight.

Without speaking, the two brothers drew their weapons and circled around the figure's hiding spot. Don took the left. Leo, the right. Circling around, they found...absolutely nothing. Glancing at each other, they stood shell-to-shell, scanning their surroundings. Don spoke first, in a whisper.

"We should head back."

Leo nodded. "It's getting light out. Come on, Donnie." The brothers took off running, taking a more confusing route to loose any pursuers.

Neither of them noticed the puncture wound on Leonardo's foot.


	2. Chapter 1 - Training

(Sorry for the vanish! Real Life interfered...)

By the time that Leo and Don had made it back to the lair, Raphael was up and whaling away at his punching bag.  
"Having fun?" Leo asked his temperamental brother with a laugh. Raph stopped, letting the punching bag swing. "Finally back, eh?" He asked, Brooklyn accent pronounced as ever.  
"Finally back. I'm gonna go wake Mikey up - Master Splinter's ready to start training."  
Raph grinned. "Buy me a ticket for that." He responded. Leo laughed as he made his way up the stairs to Mikey's room.

Michelangelo was, predictably, asleep. Leo opened his mouth to wake up his youngest brother when a hot pain shot up his leg, making him grab onto the door frame to stay upright. Mikey (of course) chose this moment to wake up.

The youngest's eyes blinked open to see Leo leaning on the door frame for support, one leg looking totally useless. Mikey blinked hard, rubbed his eyes, and held them closed for a moment before opening them again.

Leo stood upright, looking perfectly fine.

"Mikey? Training." He called, and the orange-masked turtle sat up, yawning hugely. "'mkay." He said sleepily, mulling over the image of the weakened Leo what seemed burned into his - what was the scientisty-y-like word Donnie always used - corneas.

Training went as it usually did - Leo making the others look like fools, or (occasionally) semi-competent. Okay...not quite semi-competent, but close enough.

Until Raph got ticked off at Leo. This wasn't exactly new, actually, it wasn't new at all. However, the resulting _chaos _was. It started out fairly normal, but quickly got strange as all heck.

"Sensai's pet." Raph.

"Ninja dropout." Leo.

"Rrrgghh..." Raph then shoved Leo backwards. Normally, Leo would have either dodged, blocked, or just kept his balance. Raph simply had the unfortunate timing to push his older brother when a second spike of hot pain, worse this time, shot up Leo's leg, decimating his balance. His hot-headed brother's shove sent him crashing to the ground, knocking over Master Splinter's carefully assembled Ninja Obstacle Course...thingy. This wonderful obstacle course, naturally, had blades, which nearly decapitated Leo and _did_, in fact, stab him in the arm. "Woah - Leo!" Raph yelped in surprise, concern in his voice. Leo winced as he climbed to his feet. "You okay, bro?" Leo nodded, not quite trusting himself to speak yet. Taking a deep breath, her nodded. "I'm good."

Then he passed out as the white-hot pain spiked again, smashing into his brain and making him see stars.


	3. Chapter 2 - Out Cold

(Really short, but since I wanted to end chapter 1 on a dramatic note...oh well. Here's what happens while Leo's out of it!)

When their older brother hit the floor, Don immediately checked for a concussion, and didn't hide his surprise when he found only a mild one. "He shouldn't have passed out from it." He said with a confused frown, then saw the expression on Raph's face - concern and guilt mixed into one huge, soupy mess. "It wasn't the fall...something else happened to knock him unconscious." Naturally, this didn't do anything for Raph aside from make him worry more. Donatello wondered why he bothered. Mikey looked on from the sidelines. "So...what happened?" He asked, eyes wide with worry for his oldest brother.

Donatello just shook his head. "I don't know." He murmured, lifting Leonardo up and taking him to the lab, which would now double as a mini hospital until Leo was better.

Four hours later, Donatello's shout of surprise sent Raph and Mikey rocketing into the medlab. "What is it Donnie?" Raph asked, worriedly. Don pointed to the puncture wound on the unconscious turtles foot, which had swollen and begun to leak a disgusting mixture of pus and greenish blood.

Leonardo's eyes snapped open.


	4. Chapter 3 - The Voice

"Leo!"  
Three voices chorused outside of his head.  
_Leonardo._  
One voice whispered inside his head.  
_Leonardo._  
_Who are you?_  
_It does not matter._  
_Who are you?_ He asked again.  
The voice seemed to laugh. _I am you._  
A jolt raced up Leo's spine. He realized he was moving. Sitting, then standing, then walking, up to his room. On the way, he managed to catch a glimpse of himself in the polished railing.

His eyes were glowing red. Leo tried to scream, but whatever was making him move was stopping him from calling out to his brothers.

_What have you done?! _Leo screamed in his head. He heard Raph racing after him, putting a hand on his shoulder. He tried to turn, to tell him what was happening, but the thing that had taken him over - the Voice - grabbed ahold of Raph's wrist and threw him down the stairs, where he lay groaning. Mikey and Donnie stared open-mouthed. "Raph!" Mikey shouted, sprinting over to his second-oldest brother. Donnie approached Leo cautiously. "Leo..."

"Silence!" The Voice snarled - using his mouth - whirling, fist drawn back to punch Donatello down to join Raph. The purple-masked turtle ducked and lashed out with his foot at Leo's ribs. Leo caught his foot.

Donatello's eyes widened and he howled in pain as Leo threw him over the banister and he crashed into the concrete floor.

Leo turned and continued up the stairs to his room.


End file.
